hr Big Band site

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

video of concerts etc ... Jim McNeely is artist in residence

[Byas'd Opinion]

I see they're doing a live webcast of tomorrow night's concert (27 May 2011). It starts at 7pm UK time (8pm CET). It will then be available on the site from Saturday.

It's called "Frankfurt Jazz Legends" and looks well worth catching: the featured guests are the three surviving members of Albert Mangelsdorff's 60s quartet, notably the very fine saxophonist Heinz Sauer, and sax player Christof Lauer from a younger generation.

Here's a later Mangelsdorff group, this time with Lauer on sax, to get you in the mood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ocJoUpVnQ

[Ian Thumwood]

I think the topic of German Radio big bands has come up before but the record churned out are frequently very good indeed. Curious to see the variety of artists who have worked with this particular band which ranges from Dave Liebman (not heard the record but read some favourable reviews), Tania maria (I would imagine that disc would be great fun!), The Bad plus, Colin Towns (The Miles album is so,so) and Dave Douglas. The latter collaboration produced the disc "A single sky" which includes charts by Douglas and Jim McNeely who is not as well appreciated as he should be. This is a very good record (does Dave Douglas ever make records which aren't good?) and fans of composers like Bob Brookmeyer should give this disc a listen. A great band pushed to extremes by some very challenging and, I would guess, technically demanding music.

[Byas'd Opinion]

If you look carefully, you can spot Julian Argüelles in the saxophone section. He did some of the arrangements for this "Frankfurt Jazz Legends" concert. He's been working with the hrBigBand (aka the Frankfurt Radio Big Band) for some time, but has apparently handed in his notice.